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The current study analysed the relationships between socio-economic status, migration background, and non-cognitive factors and PISA reading and mathematics achievement. The results from multi-level analyses on Sweden’s PISA survey from 2018 indicate that both mathematics achievement and reading achievement are affected by SES, migration background, reading abilities, growth mindset, and the ability to master the content. Between-school level differences are explained by reading motivation and the mother’s educational level. Our findings stress the importance of both socio-demographic, socio-economic, and non-cognitive factors such as reading self-concept and growth mindset for both mathematics achievement and reading achievement.

Background: Primary hyperhidrosis consists of excessive focal sweating. Affected individuals camouflage the sweating on their body, avoiding stigmatisation. Hence, misrepresentation in social interactions is a common feature in patients with hyperhidrosis. The aim of this study was to investigate impostor phenomenon, perfectionism, self-compassion, stress and anxiety among individuals with primary hyperhidrosis. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at our clinic among 100 participants with axillary and palmar primary hyperhidrosis. The questionnaire contained a hyperhidrosis part and Perceived Stress Scale-4, Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale-2, Clinical Perfectionism Questionnaire-6, Self-Compassion Scale Short form and Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale. Descriptive statistics was used for analyses of categorical variables. As data were normally distributed independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance with post hoc Tukey test were used to compare the mean values for the questionnaires with other variables. Pearson's correlation was used, and a forward multiple linear regression model was performed to predict presence of impostor phenomenon with gender, age and other scales in this study. Results: Impostor phenomenon occurred in almost half of our patients (48%) with hyperhidrosis. While feelings of impostor phenomenon were more common in women, there was no difference between gender regarding its intensity levels (p = 0.07). In addition, we found a significant (p < 0.001) negative correlation between impostor phenomenon and self-compassion, while feelings of impostor phenomenon increased with stress, anxiety and perfectionism (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Feelings of impostor phenomenon was found in 48% of individuals with hyperhidrosis which indicates that it is a common feature in this patient group. Future research is warranted regarding the prevalence of impostor phenomenon in hyperhidrosis and other medical conditions, among men and women, s

Detta examensarbete undersökte hur lärare i textilslöjd tillämpar och motiverar kooperativt lärande i sin undervisning. Kooperativt lärande innebär att elever lär tillsammans och av varandra genom att arbeta som en grupp. Studien byggde på semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra textilslöjdlärare som arbetar i grundskolan. Resultaten visade attlärarna anser att det finns ett traditionellt sätt att bedriva ordinarie slöjdundervisning på och att grupparbeten som stimulerar kooperativt lärande inte ingår i den traditionen utan bedrivs utanför ordinarie slöjdundervisning. Lärarna beskrev en medvetenhet om hur elevers lärande gynnas av att lära varandra liksom erfarenheter av positiva utfall av grupparbeten utanför ordinarie slöjdundervisning. Trots detta kopplade lärarna inte ihop grupparbeten med elevers individuella lärande på slöjden och såg bedömningssvårigheter och okunskap hos dem själva som hinder för att bedriva grupparbeten inom ordinarie slöjdundervisning. Utifrån resultaten finns det möjligheter att utveckla användningen av kooperativt lärande inom slöjdundervisning.

Intelligence organizations and their operations are by their nature secretive and want to continue as such. This problematizes research around them and especially intelligence cooperation with other countries can be considered among the most secret parts of an intelligence organization. This is put in the context of the essay where Sweden and Finland have a long and extensive historical relationship. That relationship also includes military aspects with volunteer soldiers and even today with the joint decision to apply to NATO. Previous research on Swedish intelligence gathering and intelligence cooperation in Finland has been sparse and scattered in larger works that have focused largely on the Swedish intelligence organization and its operations. The purpose of the essay is twofold. One is to map the Swedish intelligence gathering in Finland by C-byrån and see how it changed during the course of the war. The second is to highlight and discuss the intelligence cooperation between the Swedish and Finnish intelligence services. Since the purpose is twofold, two different theoretical frameworks and researchers' thoughts will be used. The first is Agrell's thoughts on different types of intelligence, which will be used to analyze what is obtained in Finland. The second is Michael Herman's thoughts on intelligence cooperation, which will be used to explain and discuss the Swedish-Finnish intelligence cooperation. The method chosen for this essay is a qualitative text analysis with a close reading of reports carried out. The essay will also contain elements of quantitative methods in the form of a table and figures to more easily visualize some of the results. The end result of this essay is that the C-byråns intelligence gathering in Finland changed in volume and type of intelligence during the course of the war. Within the intelligence cooperation, it is established that the cooperation was at its greatest and in clarity during the Finnish Winter War. After the Finnish

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur fitness influencers på plattformen Instagram använder sig av erfarenheter kring mental- och fysisk ohälsa för att skildra sig själva som autentiska individer. Dessa motgångar antogs leda till upprättandet av emotionella band med deras följare, och därmed ett stärkande av influencernas varumärkesidentiteter. Tidigare forskning visar att autenticitet spelar en betydande roll för att skapa en utmärkande varumärkesidentitet online (Peerce, 2015). På plattformen Instagram betyder det att de högt socialt uppsatta influencerna försöker förmedla en känsla av relaterbarhet, intimitet och tillgänglighet till sina följare (Cotter, 2019). Goffmans (2009) dramaturgiska perspektiv och Hochschilds (2012) teori kring emotional labor har i denna studie använts som teoretiskt ramverk, för att genom passiv observation analysera fyra stycken fitness influencers profiler på Instagram. Mot dessa teoretiska bakgrunder har denna studie funnit att fitness influencers motgångar i livet verkar påverka följarnas uppfattning om influencerna, följaktligen att både emotionella band upprättas samt att influencernas varumärkesidentiteter ger intrycket av att stärkas.

Background: Concern over medical students' well-being is a global issue, with studies showing high psychological distress rates. Impostor Phenomenon (IP), i.e., underestimating one's abilities, attributing success to external factors, and feeling like a fraud, has been implicated as one reason behind these troubling findings. Meanwhile, resilience has been suggested to protect against psychological distress. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of IP and its association with resilience among undergraduate medical students. Methods: The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and sociodemographic questions were completed by 457 medical students registered in their 2-10th semester at a Swedish university. Of the respondents, 62.6% identified as women, 36.1% as men, and 1.3% as others. Results: The prevalence of IP was 58.4% (defined as CIPS score ≥ 62). According to the CIPS scoring guidelines, 10.3% of participants had low IP, 29.5% moderate, 41.6% frequent, and 18.6% intense IP. Of all participants, almost 90% experienced at least moderate and 60.2% frequent to intense IP. Women had significantly higher CIPS scores and lower BRS scores than men. In contrast, neither attending semester nor age group significantly impacted CIPS scores. Finally, there was a moderate inverse correlation between the level of resilience and the prevalence of IP. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the majority of Swedish medical students feels like an impostor, and of these students, most do so frequently. Furthermore, IP is more prevalent among female students - who also show lower levels of resilience. Moreover, our results indicated that IP could hinder achieving higher resilience. Future longitudinal studies should investigate how gender norms may contribute to IP feelings and explore the potential advantages of counteracting IP and strengthening resilience among medical students. However, targeted interventions addressing individual stu

Most people in rural sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity and rely on traditional, inefficient, and polluting cooking solutions that have adverse impacts on both human health and the environment. Here, we propose a novel integrated agroforestry-bioenergy system that combines sustainable biomass production in sequential agroforestry systems with biomass-based cleaner cooking solutions and rural electricity production in small-scale combined heat and power plants and estimate the biophysical system outcomes. Despite conservative assumptions, we demonstrate that on-farm biomass production can cover the household’s fuelwood demand for cooking and still generate a surplus of woody biomass for electricity production via gasification. Agroforestry and biochar soil amendments should increase agricultural productivity and food security. In addition to enhanced energy security, the proposed system should also contribute to improving cooking conditions and health, enhancing soil fertility and food security, climate change mitigation, gender equality, and rural poverty reduction.

New species are formed either by the splitting of a lineage in two or through hybridization of divergent lineages. Using genetics to understand the origin and persistence of species is a central theme in evolutionary biology. The genetic architecture of speciation refers to the number, types and effect sizes of different genetic loci underlying the process of speciation. Insightful models and painstaking laboratory and field work have provided the first sketches of the genetic architecture of speciation in a handful of model organisms. In this thesis, I explore different aspects of speciation genetics in several less studied model systems: from birds to butterflies. In Paper I, I investigate the genetic architecture of hybrid inviability between chromosomal races of the wood white butterfly (Leptidea sinapis) and find an association between chromosome fusions and the evolution of hybrid inviability. In Paper II, I study whether the many chromosomal differences separating the L. sinapis races show evidence of non-Mendelian inheritance. We observe the preferential inheritance of the ancestral state at chromosome fusions in line with the meiotic drive model. Thus, meiotic drive acts against karyotype change and thus potentially opposes the evolution of reproductive isolation. Recent work has highlighted that epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, could be important for the dysfunction of hybrids. In Paper III, we test this prediction in naturally occurring hybrids between the collared flycatcher (F. albicollis) and the pied flycatcher (F. hypoleuca). I show that DNA methylation differences in promoter regions are often correlated with signatures of differential gene expression between species, but does not predict misexpression in hybrids. Hybridization between species is expected to reduce the genetic differentiation and erode species differences. However, hybridization can also be the trigger of speciation if the combination of alleles and traits allow the h

Introduction: Every year around 400 000 children are diagnosed with cancer worldwide. Although research in medicine has contributed to increased survival rates in oncology, childhood cancer still brings devastating consequences for all families involved. Questioning the previous lifeworld of a healthy and happy life implies acknowledging vulnerability to potentially losing their child and facing challenges including altered family dynamics and socioeconomic stresses. Objective: The aim was to describe parents experiences of living with a child with cancer. Method: A literature review with descriptive design. The results were analyzed using Popenoe et al., (2021) systematic method for data analysis and are based on eleven qualitative original articles. Results: Living with a child with cancer results in emotional challenges for the parents, such as shock, fear, guilt, grief, suffering and a desire to protect their child. Parents expressed different opinions on whether they felt supported by healthcare professionals and other social relationships. The results also showed that the parents gained new insights related to the illness. The parents had to alter their everyday pattern and make personal sacrifices in order to care for their child. The parents also adopted different types of strategies in order to try to manage the painful illness process. Conclusion: Living with a child with cancer is experienced by the parents as a process filled with emotional challenges. The parents endured feelings of guilt, worry, denial and suffering as a result of witnessing their sick child suffer. Obtaining support from the social network and healthcare professionals was considered an important part of managing the disease., Introduktion: Varje år drabbas cirka 400 000 barn av cancer världen över. Trots att forskning inom medicin bidragit till ökad överlevnad inom onkologi, medför barncancer idag förödande konsekvenser för alla familjer som drabbas. Att ifrågasätta den tidigare världsbilden om ett friskt och lyckligt liv innebär att erkänna sig sårbar för att potentiellt förlora sitt barn och ställer föräldrar inför utmaningar som inkluderar förändrade relationer och socioekonomiska påfrestningar. Syftet: Syftet var att beskriva föräldrars upplevelser av att leva med ett cancersjukt barn. Metod: En litteraturöversikt med beskrivande design. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av Popenoe et al., (2021) systematiska metod för dataanalys och baseras på elva kvalitativa originalartiklar. Resultat: Att leva med ett cancersjukt barn medför känslomässiga utmaningar för föräldrarna såsom chock, rädsla, skuld, sorg, lidande och en vilja att skydda sitt barn. Föräldrarna uttryckte skilda meningar om huruvida de upplevde stödet från vårdpersonal och andra sociala relationer. Resultatet visade även att föräldrarna erhöll nya insikter i samband med sjukdomen. Föräldrarna var tvungna att ändra det vardagliga mönstret och utföra personliga uppoffringar i syfte att värna om sitt barn. Föräldrarna anammade även olika typer av strategier i syfte att försöka hantera den plågsamma sjukdomsprocessen. Slutsats: Att leva med ett cancersjukt barn upplevs av föräldrarna som en process fylld av känslomässiga utmaningar. Föräldrarna fick utstå känslor av skuld, oro, förnekelse och lidande som ett resultat av att bevittna sitt sjuka barn lida. Att erhålla stöd från det sociala nätverket och vårdpersonalen ansågs som en viktig del i att hantera sjukdomen.

Uppsatsen undersöker det utopiska verket News from Nowhere (1890) av William Morris och gör jämförelser med Kants teori om estetisk upplevelse i syfte att undersöka relationen mellan estetisk upplevelse och det materiella samt varför dessa tenderar att separeras och det kroppsliga och föränderliga undermineras. Med hjälp av ett pragmatiskt, marxistiskt och eko-feministiskt perspektiv på News from Nowhere synliggörs relationen mellan hur vårt liv är ordnat och hur det upplevs. Uppsatsen ger exempel på hur estetisk upplevelse och det materiella fungerar relationellt och beroende av varandra samt hur erkännandet av det materiella och justeringar av vardagen kan gynna estetisk upplevelse och bidra till en helare förståelse av världen.

Den här uppsatsen är en kvalitativ textanalys av böckerna: Melles lillasyster har adhd och Men Aron!. Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera hur neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar, specifikt adhd, framställs i barnlitteratur. Vi analyserar hur karaktärerna med adhd framställs, och hur omgivningens förhållningssätt framställs. Dessutom kommer uppsatsen även att diskutera hur vi som lärare kan använda de två valda böckerna i undervisningen i årskurs F-3, i arbetet med att främja skolans värdegrundsuppdrag. I analysen använder vi oss av begrepp från Maria Nikolajevas bok Barnbokens byggklossar (2017). Vi använder oss även av medicinska respektive sociala synsätt på neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar, en tabell med egenskaper att eftersträva i böcker om neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar, och en lista om egenskaper som kännetecknar adhd, utifrån adhd-forskningen. Resultatet av analysen visar att karaktärerna framställs i linje med adhd-forskningens syn på adhd, där vi även har försökt fånga hur de framställs i förhållande till forskningen. Omgivningens förhållningssätt varierar beroende på karaktärernas funktion i böckerna. Karaktärerna i böckerna har olika funktioner för att skildra bra respektive mindre bra förhållningssätt gentemot personer med adhd.Vi resonerar och kommer fram till att de två valda böckerna är givande i skolans värdegrundsarbete om allas lika värde. De metoder vi presenterar för att främja allas lika värde är högläsning följt av boksamtal och eget arbete.

In urban areas, inhalation of fine particles from combustion sources such as diesel engines causes adverse health effects. For toxicity testing, a substantial amount of particulate matter (PM) is needed. Conventional sampling involves collection of PM onto substrates by filtration or inertial impaction. A major drawback to those methodologies is that the extraction process can modify the collected particles and alter their chemical composition. Moreover, prior to toxicity testing, PM samples need to be resuspended, which can alter the PM sample even further. Lastly, the choice of the resuspension medium may also impact the detected toxicological responses. In this study, we compared the toxicity profile of PM obtained from two alternative sampling systems, using in vitro toxicity assays. One system makes use of condensational growth before collection in water in an impinger – BioSampler (CG-BioSampler), and the other, a Dekati® Gravimetric Impactor (DGI), is based on inertial impaction. In addition, various methods for resuspension of DGI collected PM were compared. Tested endpoints included cytotoxicity, formation of cellular reactive oxygen species, and genotoxicity. The alternative collection and suspension methods affected different toxicological endpoints. The water/dimethyl sulfoxide mixture and cell culture medium resuspended particles, along with the CG-BioSampler sample, produced the strongest responses. The water resuspended sample from the DGI appeared least toxic. CG-BioSampler collected PM caused a clear increased response in apoptotic cell death. We conclude that the CG-BioSampler PM sampler is a promising alternative to inertial impaction sampling.

Background: Regulation of transcription by DNA methylation in 5'-CpG-3' context is a widespread mechanism allowing differential expression of genetically identical cells to persist throughout development. Consequently, differences in DNA methylation can reinforce variation in gene expression among cells, tissues, populations, and species. Despite a surge in studies on DNA methylation, we know little about the importance of DNA methylation in population differentiation and speciation. Here we investigate the regulatory and evolutionary impact of DNA methylation in five tissues of two Ficedula flycatcher species and their naturally occurring F-1 hybrids. Results: We show that the density of CpG in the promoters of genes determines the strength of the association between DNA methylation and gene expression. The impact of DNA methylation on gene expression varies among tissues with the brain showing unique patterns. Differentially expressed genes between parental species are predicted by genetic and methylation differentiation in CpG-rich promoters. However, both these factors fail to predict hybrid misexpression suggesting that promoter mismethylation is not a main determinant of hybrid misexpression in Ficedula flycatchers. Using allele-specific methylation estimates in hybrids, we also determine the genome-wide contribution of cis- and trans effects in DNA methylation differentiation. These distinct mechanisms are roughly balanced in all tissues except the brain, where trans differences predominate. Conclusions: Overall, this study provides insight on the regulatory and evolutionary impact of DNA methylation in songbirds.

Species frequently differ in the number and structure of chromosomes they harbor, but individuals that are heterozygous for chromosomal rearrangements may suffer from reduced fitness. Chromosomal rearrangements like fissions and fusions can hence serve as a mechanism for speciation between incipient lineages, but their evolution poses a paradox. How can rearrangements get fixed between populations if heterozygotes have reduced fitness? One solution is that this process predominantly occurs in small and isolated populations, where genetic drift can override natural selection. However, fixation is also more likely if a novel rearrangement is favored by a transmission bias, such as meiotic drive. Here, we investigate chromosomal transmission distortion in hybrids between two wood white (Leptidea sinapis) butterfly populations with extensive karyotype differences. Using data from two different crossing experiments, we uncover that there is a transmission bias favoring the ancestral chromosomal state for derived fusions, a result that shows that chromosome fusions actually can fix in populations despite being counteracted by meiotic drive. This means that meiotic drive not only can promote runaway chromosome number evolution and speciation, but also that it can be a conservative force acting against karyotypic change and the evolution of reproductive isolation. Based on our results, we suggest a mechanistic model for why chromosome fusion mutations may be opposed by meiotic drive and discuss factors contributing to karyotype evolution in Lepidoptera.

IMPORTANCE: Tafamidis has been shown to improve survival in patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) compared with placebo. However, its effect on cardiac function has not been fully characterized. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of tafamidis on cardiac function in patients with ATTR-CM. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This was an exploratory, post hoc analysis of the Tafamidis in Transthyretin Cardiomyopathy Clinical Trial (ATTR-ACT), a multicenter, international, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 randomized clinical trial conducted from December 2013 to February 2018. The ATTR-ACT included 48 sites in 13 counties and enrolled patients aged 18 to 90 years with ATTR-CM. Data were analyzed from July 2018 to September 2023. INTERVENTION: Patients were randomized to tafamidis meglumine, 80 mg or 20 mg, or placebo for 30 months. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Patients were categorized based on left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction at enrollment as having heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (≥50%), mildly reduced ejection fraction (41% to 49%), or reduced ejection fraction (≤40%). Changes from baseline to month 30 in LV ejection fraction, LV stroke volume, LV global longitudinal strain, and the ratio of early mitral inflow velocity to septal and lateral early diastolic mitral annular velocity (E/e′) were compared in patients receiving tafamidis, 80 mg, vs placebo. RESULTS: A total of 441 patients were randomized in ATTR-ACT, and 436 patients had available echocardiographic data. Of 436 included patients, 393 (90.1%) were male, and the mean (SD) age was 74 (7) years. A total of 220 (50.5%), 119 (27.3%), and 97 (22.2%) had heart failure with preserved, mildly reduced, and reduced LV ejection fraction, respectively. Over 30 months, there was less pronounced worsening in 4 of the echocardiographic measures in patients receiving tafamidis, 80 mg (n = 176), vs placebo (n = 177) (least squares mean difference: LV stroke volume, 7.02 mL

The recent increase in data and model scale for language model pre-training has led to huge training costs. In scenarios where new data become available over time, updating a model instead of fully retraining it would therefore provide significant gains. We study the pros and cons of updating a language model when new data comes from new languages – the case of continual learning under language shift. Starting from a monolingual English language model, we incrementally add data from Danish, Icelandic and Norwegian to investigate how forward and backward transfer effects depend on pre-training order and characteristics of languages, for models with 126M, 356M and 1.3B parameters. Our results show that, while forward transfer is largely positive and independent of language order, backward transfer can be positive or negative depending on the order and characteristics of new languages. We explore a number of potentially explanatory factors and find that a combination of language contamination and syntactic similarity best fits our results., Part of ISBN: 9783031705625QC 20240919

While well-being does generally constitute a moderate predictor of school achievement, research on the predictive validity of cognitive ability for well-being in school contexts remains scant. The current study analyzed longitudinal relations between cognitive ability measured at age 13 (Grade 6) and well-being measured at age 18 (Grade 12, valid N = 2,705) in a Swedish sample, using several multivariate model techniques. The results indicate that cognitive ability was not a statistically significant predictor when several predictors were entered in a multiple regression model. However, gender was a significant covariate as girls and young women have a substantially lower degree of self-reported well-being. This casts light on the limitations of cognitive ability as a construct for some non-cognitive outcomes, at least in shorter and narrower spatial–temporal contexts.

In recent years, some educational researchers have questioned the theory of a robust relationship between test scores in international large-scale assessments such as PISA and lagged economic growth. However, both the proponents and opponents of such a human capital approach have mainly focused on earlier growth patterns during the twentieth century. Hence, the current article analysed the relationship between PISA 2000 and economic growth in 2010–2019 for 31 countries, and composite cognitive skills for 80 countries and their relationships with economic growth in 2010–2019. The results indicate that PISA scores or other cognitive skill measures could to some extent predict economic growth between 2010 and 2019, even when controlling for a significant number of variables. In a consecutive analysis, the relations were substantially associated with Middle Eastern countries because many countries from this region experienced political instability and decreasing oil revenues throughout this period. Hence, it is possible that regional and contextual relationships affect these patterns.

The Swedish modernist painter Nils von Dardel (1888–1943) was an integral part of the avant-garde of his time. Dardel's artistic and individual expressions developed from a dandy persona, who expressed dark personal conflicts, into a more integrated humanist perspective signified by love, jealousy, ambivalent sexuality, life and death, and the absurdity of existence. It was generally a turn from negation to optimistic values, as well as to universalism. His art – ironic and bizarre – has been continuously provoking from his premature death in New York City into the postmodern 20-s century. In order to add to the international scholarly discussion, the current article sheds light on this fascinating artist's life, work, and persona. Moreover, it juxtaposes some aspects of Dardel with those of the Swedish writer and painter August Strindberg (1849–1912), as well as the Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima (1925–1970).

Kazakhstan is a post-Soviet nation whose education system and curricular constitution recently have gone through a number of substantial reforms. These changes have occurred in light of political-economic initiatives to strengthen the country’s economic competitiveness. The current article examines the latest version of the national curriculum with an emphasis on the subjects Kazakh, English, Russian, smaller minority languages, as well as history. The findings highlight a tripartite trajectory of Kazakhstanization, post-Soviet multiculturalism, and Westernization in the educational realm.

The vast literature on personality psychology generally focuses on neutral or socially beneficial personality traits such as the Five-Factor model (e.g., agreeableness, conscientiousness) or “dark” traits such as Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism. However, the current synthesis of the literature indicates that the distinction between benign, malign, and neutral personality traits and facets is partly misguided. In fact, there are many objective and subjective measures that indicate that high agreeableness is not beneficial, while moderate grandiose narcissism is. Many, if not all of the traits are rather gray and socially and personally desired outcomes indicate that people who aim for a well-rounded personality should typically be clustered in the middle of the various personality spectrums. In addition, many of the personality traits are characterized by parallel patterns of good/bad relations to social and personal outcomes.

Taiwan’s high performance in the PISA surveys has not been unnoticed by researchers. However, both individual level research and cross-national research which is relevant for Taiwan’s PISA achievement is typically lacking, especially as regards later surveys. This article examined Taiwan’s PISA mathematics and reading achievement in 2018, using individual level data (Valid N = 6863) and cross-national data with aggregated data for 77 countries. At the individual level, socioeconomic and non-cognitive variables explain the most variance of PISA mathematics and reading. At the cross-national level, cognitive ability and average income were statistically significant with cognitive ability as the strongest predictor. As Taiwan has a high level of average cognitive ability it may regarded as a strong comparative advantage with regard to human capital.

Today’s society is increasingly characterized by a shift in both communication and the provision of services and information to take place digitally. The largest users of digital platforms are young people, where social media and other digital applications are more the rule than the exception in their everyday lives. Despite the increase in digital usage, particularly among young people, there is scant research on how this affects them regarding their development. We have particularly focused on how the development of sexuality among young people is influenced, with social media and easily accessible online pornography as a factor to specifically consider. From the perspective of social work, we have turned to those who, in their work, encounter young people regarding topics such as sexuality, relationships and consent. Specifically, we have interviewed counselors within schools and youth centers to get an idea of how they perceive this and what challenges they might face in their work with youth sexuality in a digital context. A conclusion we can make is that the lack of knowledge about how young people are affected by what they encounter online contributes to difficulties in designing interventions of quality for support and treatment. How the presence of young people in digital arenas affects the development of their sexuality and ability to have healthy relationships can therefore be considered a gap of knowledge that needs to be filled.

Uppsatsens syfte har varit att utreda hur 3 kap. 3 § Ärvdabalken bör tillämpas. En efterlevandemake får inte genom gåva eller jämförlig handling utan tillbörlig hänsyn orsaka en väsentligminskning av den andel som kommer utgöra efterarv – om så har skett ska vederlag utgå tillefterarvingarna. Genom tillämpning av rättsdogmatisk metod har det framkommit det att enjämförlig handling exempelvis kan vara att sälja något till ett underpris, men att det finns fåexempel på jämförliga handlingar att hitta i rättskällorna. En handling har skett utan tillbörlighänsyn när en efterlevande make inte beaktat efterarvingarnas intresse fastän denne borde hagjort det. Av rättspraxis framkommer det att en väsentlig minskning i vart fall ska vara minst enfjärdedel av den andel som utgör efterarv. Om vederlag inte kan utgå till efterarvingarna kanåterbäring av gåvan eventuellt aktualiseras, men här finns en preskriptionstid som skulle kunnaförlängas för att stärka skyddet för efterarvingarna. Även ett stärkt skydd för testamentstagaresom efterarvingar har diskuterats i uppsatsen.

This thesis explores whether excess returns of funds in the Swedish stock market can be attributed to skill or luck by employing the Fama-French Three-Factor Model and t-tests. The study analyzes data from a selection of mutual Swedish funds during the time period 2004 and 2019 to determine if differences in returns result from managerial skill or random variations. Findings suggest that it is rarely the skill of fund managers that leads to positive excess returns. Instead, market factors and luck appear to be decisive. By offering a deeper understanding of the dynamics between skill and luck, this thesis contributes to the ongoing debate on active management in financial markets., Denna rapport undersöker om överavkastning av fonder på den svenska aktiemarknaden kan tillskrivas skicklighet eller tur genom att använda Fama-French trefaktormodell och t-tester. Studien analyserar data från ett urval av svenska fonder under tidsperioden 2004 till 2019 för att avgöra om skillnader i avkastning beror på skicklighet eller tur. Resultaten tyder på att det sällan är fondförvaltarnas skicklighet som leder till positiv överavkastning. Istället verkar marknadsfaktorer och tur vara avgörande. Genom att erbjuda en djupare förståelse för dynamiken mellan skicklighet och tur, bidrar denna rapport till den pågående debatten om aktiv förvaltning på finansiella marknader.

Utvecklingen av artificiell intelligens och språkmodeller har ökat drastiskt under de senaste åren vilket medfört både möjligheter såväl som risker. Med en större användning av AI-relaterade produkter och människolika chattbotar har det medfört ett intresse av att kontrollera vilken sorts data som delas med dessa verktyg. Under särskilda omständigheter kan det förekomma data som till exempel information relaterat till personer, som inte får delas. Detta projekt har av denna anledning kretsat kring att använda och jämföra olika system för automatisk namnigenkänning, med målet att förhindra sådan data från att bli delad. I projektet jämfördes tre stycken olika alternativ för att implementera system för namnigenkänning, innan det mest lämpliga alternativet valdes för implementationen. Fortsättningsvis användes de tre förtränade transformer-modellerna GPT-SW3, TinyLlama och Mistral för implementationen där dessa tre blev finjusterade på två olika dataset. Implementationsfasen involverade applicering av tekniker för att öka datastorleken, databearbetning samt modellkvantisering innan de finjusterades för namnigenkänning. En uppsättning av utvärderingsmått bestående av bland annat F1-mått användes därefter för att mäta de tränade modellernas prestanda. De tre modellerna utvärderades och jämfördes med varandra utifrån resultatet från mätningen och träningen. Modellerna uppvisade varierande resultat och prestanda där både över- och underanpassning förekom. Avslutningsvis drogs slutsatsen om att TinyLlama var den bäst presterande modellen utifrån resultatet och övriga kringliggande aspekter., The development of artificial intelligence and large language models has increased rapidly in recent years, bringing both opportunities and risks. With a broader use of AI related products such as human-like chatbots there has been an increase in interest in controlling the data that is being shared with them. In some scenarios there is data, such as personal or proprietary information, which should not be shared. This project has therefore revolved around utilizing and comparing different Named Entity Recognition systems to prevent such data from being shared. Three different approaches to implement Named Entity Recognition systems were compared before selecting the most appropriate one to further use for the actual implementation. Furthermore, three pre-trained transformer models, GPT-SW3, TinyLlama and Mistral, were used for the implementation where these were fine-tuned on two different datasets. The implementation phase included applying data augmentation techniques, data processing and model quantization before fine-tuning the models on Named Entity Recognition. A set of metrics including precision, recall and F1-score was further used to measure the performances of the trained models. The three models were compared and evaluated against each other based on the results obtained from the measurements and the training. The models showed varying results and performances where both overfitting and underfitting occured. Finally, the TinyLlama model was concluded to be the best model based on the obtained results and other considered aspects.

Syftet med denna studie var att synliggöra hur estetiska lärprocesser i NO-undervisningen utvecklar elevers kunskap om matspjälkning. Utgångspunkt för analys är elevteckningar. Denna studie och min undervisning har baserats på det sociokulturella perspektivet och variationsteorin. Eleverna fick som första uppgift att rita deras föreställning om matspjälkningen. Utifrån detta kunde jag komma fram till tre kritiska aspekter eleverna behövde urskilja: matstrupen och dess funktion, magsäckens funktion, tarmarna och dess funktioner. Undervisningen planerades därefter, utifrån de kritiska aspekterna, variation och estetiska lärprocesser. Resultatet visade att eleverna utvecklade sina kunskaper om matspjälkningen genom att få arbeta med de kritiska aspekterna, tillsammans med varandra och genom de estetiska lärprocesserna. Sammanfattningsvis har denna studie visat att en utgångspunkt i elevers teckningar med en undervisning baserat på variationsteorin skapar en möjlighet för eleverna att utveckla sina kunskaper om ett fenomen eller objekt i NO-ämnet.

Den nuvarande prövningsordningen för bearbetningskoncession bygger på ett system där Bergsstaten bedömer företrädesrätt till mineral och mark- och vattenområden. Prospektören måste senare ansöka om miljötillstånd enligt miljöbalken. Problem uppstår när de parallella prövningarna kolliderar med EU:s skydd för utpekade arter och livsmiljöer (Natura 2000). Risken med att vid ett tidigt skede i processen ansöka om Natura 2000-tillstånd är att man behöver söka nytt tillstånd senare i processen, detta om gruvverksamhetens omfattning och miljöeffekter inte var fullt klarlagda vid det första ansökningstillfället. Dessa omständigheter har resulterat i en rättsosäkerhet och att färre gruvor etableras. Arbetet har tagit utgångspunkt ifrån analyser av gällande rätt och har genom en rättsdogmatisk metod syftat till att redogöra för förutsättningarna för att erhålla bearbetningskoncession. Vidare har arbetet avsett att undersöka när i prövningsprocessen ett Natura 2000-tillstånd behöver sökas samt vilka kriterier som behöver vara uppfyllda för att erhålla tillståndet. De parallella prövningarna samt nuvarande prövningsordning har blivit ett problem som givit upphov till ett lagförslag som föreslår att ett Natura 2000-tillstånd inte längre ska vara en förutsättning för att erhålla bearbetningskoncession. Natura 2000-tillståndsprövningen ska istället interageras med miljötillståndsprövningen som sker vid ett senare tillfälle. De tilltänkta ändringarna syftar till att effektivisera prövningsprocessen samt bidra till att den ska bli mer förutsägbar och rättssäker, detta i sin tur antas leda till att investeringsviljan ökar. Lagändringen antas inte leda till några negativa effekter på miljön eftersom en koncession inte per automatik innebär tillstånd att starta en gruvverksamhet, den utgör heller ingen garanti för att verksamheten kommer godkännas i slutändan. Kraven på tillstånd enligt miljöbalken kvarstår och lagstiftarens syfte är endast att ändra när i tillståndsprövningen ansökan

The term acculturation is important for describing and analyzing how for example migrants gradually become accustomed to a new host society. The term proculturation is similar but emphasizes the real-life experiences of migrants, as well as the fusion between familiar and unfamiliar ideas, things, and experiences. However, so far there is a dearth of studies which have aimed to explore such a construct empirically. The current article used a limited but meaningful example, the lived experiences of a Kazakh migrant in Sweden whose occupation is being a psychotherapist. The aim was to understand the cultural identity of this individual as regards processes of migration from A (Kazakhstan) to B (Sweden), as well as related proculturation processes. Moreover, the focus was also on the specific and precarious work conditions for a person who does not have the possibility to work officially as a psychotherapist during an extensive residence permit application process. Information derived from a semi-structured interview indicates that basic cultural identity markers (woman, Kazakh, Russian-speaking, Muslim) remained constant after residing in Sweden for more than 5 years but that some elements of the more secular-liberal Swedish culture (e.g., the Swedish language, increased alcohol consumption) were appropriated. The person used social media apps like WhatsApp as a technological tool to practice the profession as a psychotherapist in a transnational setting, which constitutes a different strategy than how Swedish as well as Kazakh psychotherapists generally perform this profession.

Sedan 2020 har FN:s Barnkonvention varit lagstadgad i Sverige och alla barn har därför laglig rätt att vara delaktiga och delta i beslut och frågor som rör dem. Den fysiska utemiljön påverkar barn och att genom att låta barn delta i utveckling och förändring av densamma främjas bland annat barnets demokratiska kunskaper, barnets hälsa men också en hållbar stadsplanering. Arbetet med barns deltagande i utveckling och förändring av fysisk utemiljö bedrivs av olika aktörer och kommunen är en särskilt viktig aktör. Det är dock oklart hur kommunernas arbete ser ut idag och vilka behov som finns för att utveckla arbetet. Därför genomfördes en enkätundersökning för att kartlägga hur barns deltagande ser ut i skånska kommuner i utveckling och förändring av fysisk utemiljö. Totalt besvarade 24 av 66 tillfrågade respondenter inom planering och förvaltning i 18 av 33 kommuner enkäten i sin helhet. Resultatet visar att det i vissa kommuner verkar finnas en rutin för hur själva deltagandeprocessen ska genomföras men att det saknas systematik kring när barn ska delta. Det framkommer även att tydliga riktlinjer har en positiv påverkan på arbetet men saknas inom flera kommuner. Resultaten visar att även om kommuner har flera goda exempel så är de i behov av att systematiseras för att bättre möjliggöra barns deltagande i utveckling och förändring av fysisk utemiljö., The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been Swedish law since 2020 and hence all Swedish children have the legal right to participate and to be heard on matters affecting them, and to be included in the decision making of such matters. The outdoor environment has a strong impact on children’s health and by involving children in the planning and development of it one can promote children’s democratic knowledge, sustainable city-planning along with children’s wellbeing. Work incorporating children’s participation involves several actors and the municipality being a particularly important one. It is however unclear how work involving children in the development of outdoor environments looks and what is needed to improve it. Therefore a survey was carried out to review children’s participation in the development of outdoor environments in Scanian municipalities. A total of 24 out of 66 respondents in 18 of 33 municipalities completed the survey. The results indicate that certain municipalities tend to have a routine of how to carry out the participation process but that there is a lack of systematics regarding when to involve children. Several municipalities lack guidelines although clear guidelines have a positive effect on children’s participation and involvement. The results show that although the municipalities have plenty of good anecdotal examples, they are in need of systematic work to thoroughly enable children’s participation in the development of outdoor environments.

BACKGROUND: Offspring of parents with bipolar disorder have increased risks of their own psychopathology. However, a large-scale survey of psychiatric, somatic, and adverse social outcomes up to adulthood, which could aid in prioritizing and tailoring prevention, is lacking. It also remains to clarify how risks are modified by other parental factors. METHODS: Swedish population registers were linked to compare offspring having (N = 24,788) and not having (N = 247,880) a parent with bipolar disorder with respect to psychiatric diagnoses and psychotropic medication, birth-related and somatic conditions, social outcomes, accidents, suicide attempts, and mortality. Individuals were followed until age 18. We estimated the influence of lifetime parental psychiatric comorbidity, bipolar disorder subtype, and sex on outcomes. RESULTS: Children of parents with bipolar disorder had 2-3 times higher risks of all psychiatric diagnoses, except for bipolar disorder, for which the risk was 11-fold. Significantly increased risks were also found for several somatic conditions, low school grades, criminal behavior, victimization, accidents, and suicidal behavior. Adjusting for lifetime parental psychiatric comorbidity attenuated most associations. Offspring of a parent with bipolar disorder type 2 had statistically significantly higher risks of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, respiratory tract conditions, and accidents compared with offspring of a parent with bipolar disorder type 1. Offspring of mothers with bipolar disorder had higher risks of several psychiatric diagnoses, respiratory tract conditions, low school grades, and accidents compared with offspring of fathers with bipolar disorder. Having two parents with bipolar disorder entailed the highest risks of psychiatric outcomes in offspring. CONCLUSIONS: Early intervention and family support are particularly warranted for the offspring of a parent with bipolar disorder in the presence of lifetime parental psychiatric

Aim: The aim of this article was to introduce Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA) in caring and nursing science, to provide a guide on how to perform such an analysis, and to describe the wider context of discourse epistemology. Design: The article is designed as a methodological paper, including (a) epistemological roots of discourse analysis, (b) an overview of discourse analytical research within caring and nursing science which points out an increased trend, and (c) a guide to conducting a CDA. Analysis: It is important that discourse analysis is available and accessible to nursing and caring researchers. Through the process of encircling discourses, valuable insight is given into fields that otherwise would be lost or would not be available. Conclusion: Our summary stance is that discourse analysis as it is presented in this article is strongly advisable for use in nursing and caring sciences.

APC mutation is the main driving mechanism of CRC development and leads to constitutively activated WNT signaling, overpopulation of ALDH+ stem cells (SCs), and incomplete differentiation. We previously reported that retinoic acid (RA) receptors are selectively expressed in ALDH+ SCs, which provides a way to target cancer SCs with retinoids to induce differentiation. Hypotheses: A functional link exists between the WNT and RA pathways, and APC mutation generates a WNT:RA imbalance that decreases retinoid-induced differentiation and increases ALDH+ SCs. Accordingly, to restore parity in WNT:RA signaling, we induce wt-APC expression in APC-mutant CRC cells, and we assess the ability of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) to induce differentiation. We found that ATRA increased expression of the WNT target gene, CYP26A1, and inducing wt-APC reduced this expression by 50%. Thus, the RA and WNT pathways crosstalk to modulate CYP26A1, which metabolizes retinoids. Moreover, inducing wt-APC augments ATRA-induced cell differentiation by: (i) decreasing cell proliferation; (ii) suppressing ALDH1A1 expression; (iii) decreasing ALDH+ SCs; and (iv) increasing neuroendocrine cell differentiation. A novel CYP26A1-based network that links WNT and RA signaling was also identified by NanoString profiling/bioinformatics analysis. Furthermore, CYP26A1 inhibitors sensitized CRC cells to the anti-proliferative effect of drugs that downregulate WNT signaling. Notably, in wt-APC-CRCs, decreased CYP26A1 improved patient survival. These findings have strong potential for clinical translation.

On current computer architectures, GMRES' performance can be limited by its communication cost to generate orthonormal basis vectors of the Krylov subspace. To address this performance bottleneck, its $s$-step variant orthogonalizes a block of $s$ basis vectors at a time, potentially reducing the communication cost by a factor of $s$. Unfortunately, for a large step size $s$, the solver can generate extremely ill-conditioned basis vectors, and to maintain stability in practice, a conservatively small step size is used, which limits the performance of the $s$-step solver. To enhance the performance using a small step size, in this paper, we introduce a two-stage block orthogonalization scheme. Similar to the original scheme, the first stage of the proposed method operates on a block of $s$ basis vectors at a time, but its objective is to maintain the well-conditioning of the generated basis vectors with a lower cost. The orthogonalization of the basis vectors is delayed until the second stage when enough basis vectors are generated to obtain higher performance. Our analysis shows the stability of the proposed two-stage scheme. The performance is improved because while the same amount of computation as the original scheme is required, most of the communication is done at the second stage of the proposed scheme, reducing the overall communication requirements. Our performance results with up to 192 NVIDIA V100 GPUs on the Summit supercomputer demonstrate that when solving a 2D Laplace problem, the two-stage approach can reduce the orthogonalization time and the total time-to-solution by the respective factors of up to $2.6\times$ and $1.6\times$ over the original $s$-step GMRES, which had already obtained the respective speedups of $2.1\times$ and $1.8\times$ over the standard GMRES. Similar speedups were obtained for 3D problems and for matrices from the SuiteSparse Matrix Collection., Comment: Accepted for publication in IPDPS'24

Women in computing were among the first programmers in the early 20th century and were substantial contributors to the industry. Today, men dominate the software engineering industry. Research and data show that women are far less likely to pursue a career in this industry, and those that do are less likely than men to stay in it. Reasons for women and other underrepresented minorities to leave the industry are a lack of opportunities for growth and advancement, unfair treatment and workplace culture. This research explores how the potential to cultivate or uphold an industry unfavourable to women and non-binary individuals manifests in software engineering education at the university level. For this purpose, the study includes surveys and interviews. We use gender name perception as a survey instrument, and the results show small differences in perceptions of software engineering students based on their gender. Particularly, the survey respondents anchor the values of the male software engineer (Hans) to a variety of technical and non-technical skills, while the same description for a female software engineer (Hanna) is anchored mainly by her managerial skills. With interviews with women and non-binary students, we gain insight on the main barriers to their sense of ambient belonging. The collected data shows that some known barriers from the literature such as tokenism, and stereotype threat, do still exist. However, we find positive factors such as role models and encouragement that strengthen the sense of belonging among these students.

Aims: Unmet needs exist in the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure (HF) in the elderly population. Our aim was to analyse and compare data of diagnostics and management of very elderly patients (aged >= 85 years) compared with younger patients (aged 18-84 years) with HF in Sweden. Methods: Incidence of >= 2 HF diagnosis (ICD-10) was identified from primary/secondary care in Uppsala and Vasterbotten during 2010-2015 via electronic medical records linked to data from national health registers. Analyses investigated the diagnosis, treatment patterns, hospitalizations and outpatient visits, and mortality. Results: Of 8702 patients, 27.7% were >= 85 years old, women (60.2%); most patients (80.7%) had unknown left ventricular ejection fraction; key co-morbidities comprised anaemia, dementia, and cerebrovascular disease. More very elderly patients received cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related management after diagnosis in primary care (13.6% vs. 6.5%; P < 0.0001), but fewer patients underwent echocardiography (19.3% vs. 42.9%; P < 0.0001). Within 1 year of diagnosis, very elderly patients were less likely to be hospitalized (all-cause admissions per patient: 1.9 vs. 2.3; P < 0.0001; CVD-related admissions per patient: 1.8 vs. 2.1; P = 0.0004) or prescribed an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker (ACEI/ARB) plus a beta-blocker (45.2% vs. 56.9%; P < 0.0001) or an ACEI/ARB plus a beta-blocker plus a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (15.4% vs. 31.7%; P < 0.0001). One-year mortality was high in patients >= 85 years old, 30.5% (CI: 28.3-32.7%) out of 1797 patients. Conclusions: Despite the large number of very elderly patients with newly diagnosed HF in Sweden, poor diagnostic work-up and subsequent treatment highlight the inequality of care in this vulnerable population.

Novel backscatter communication techniques enable battery-free sensor tags to interoperate with unmodified standard IoT devices, extending a sensor network's capabilities in a scalable manner. Without requiring additional dedicated infrastructure, the battery-free tags harvest energy from the environment, while the IoT devices provide them with the unmodulated carrier they need to communicate. A schedule coordinates the provision of carriers for the communications of battery-free devices with IoT nodes. Optimal carrier scheduling is an NP-hard problem that limits the scalability of network deployments. Thus, existing solutions waste energy and other valuable resources by scheduling the carriers suboptimally. We present DeepGANTT, a deep learning scheduler that leverages graph neural networks to efficiently provide near-optimal carrier scheduling. We train our scheduler with optimal schedules of relatively small networks obtained from a constraint optimization solver, achieving a performance within 3% of the optimum. Without the need to retrain, our scheduler generalizes to networks 6 × larger in the number of nodes and 10 × larger in the number of tags than those used for training. DeepGANTT breaks the scalability limitations of the optimal scheduler and reduces carrier utilization by up to compared to the state-of-the-art heuristic. As a consequence, our scheduler efficiently reduces energy and spectrum utilization in backscatter networks., Part of ISBN 9798400701184QC 20231023

Purpose Depression and anxiety afflict millions worldwide causing considerable disability. MULTI-PSYCH is a longitudinal cohort of genotyped and phenotyped individuals with depression or anxiety disorders who have undergone highly structured internet-based cognitive-behaviour therapy (ICBT). The overarching purpose of MULTI-PSYCH is to improve risk stratification, outcome prediction and secondary preventive interventions. MULTI-PSYCH is a precision medicine initiative that combines clinical, genetic and nationwide register data. Participants MULTI-PSYCH includes 2668 clinically well-characterised adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) (n=1300), social anxiety disorder (n=640) or panic disorder (n=728) assessed before, during and after 12 weeks of ICBT at the internet psychiatry clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. All patients have been blood sampled and genotyped. Clinical and genetic data have been linked to several Swedish registers containing a wide range of variables from patient birth up to 10 years after the end of ICBT. These variable types include perinatal complications, school grades, psychiatric and somatic comorbidity, dispensed medications, medical interventions and diagnoses, healthcare and social benefits, demographics, income and more. Long-term follow-up data will be collected through 2029. Findings to date Initial uses of MULTI-PSYCH include the discovery of an association between PRS for autism spectrum disorder and response to ICBT, the development of a machine learning model for baseline prediction of remission status after ICBT in MDD and data contributions to genome wide association studies for ICBT outcome. Other projects have been launched or are in the planning phase. Future plans The MULTI-PSYCH cohort provides a unique infrastructure to study not only predictors or short-term treatment outcomes, but also longer term medical and socioeconomic outcomes in patients treated with ICBT for depression or anxiety. MULTI-PSYCH is well positioned for, QC 20231031

Understanding crystallization is crucial to enable improved design approaches for inorganic materials. Despite this importance, a deepened understanding of the mechanisms controlling this phase transition is still lacking. Herein, we employ in situ heating in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) to unravel crystallization phenomena in an Al–Ti–O system. Specifically, annealing of amorphous chemical vapor deposited (CVD) Al2TiO5-based coatings has been carried out in the temperature interval 700–900 °C. Crystallization typically occurs through a two-step process, where numerous smaller (<10 nm) crystals are initially formed, followed by rapid crystal growth. Examinations of the initial crystallization stages indicate that the amorphous-to-crystalline transformation is polymorphic and that several phases may nucleate simultaneously, including Al6Ti2O13 and Al16Ti5O34. A transient (time-dependent) nucleation rate is discovered based on the displayed nucleation behavior. Subsequent evaluations of the growth stages also reveal a preferential growth into larger crystals, and the coherent findings of this study indicate that crystallization occurs through a diffusionless (displacive) mechanism.

Oxygen is a commonly overlooked element influencing the properties of many metal oxides. By combining several analytical in situ techniques and theoretical calculations, we demonstrate that oxygen plays a vital part in the phase formation and crystallization of Al2TiO5-based chemical vapor-deposited coatings. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) corroborates a polymorphic transformation during crystallization. Subsequent hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) shows that crystallization occurs through a displacive (diffusionless) mechanism. Coupled with theoretical calculations, the crystallization and co-formation of Al2TiO5, Al6Ti2O13, and Al16Ti5O34 are suggested to be driven by the migration of oxygen ions and their corresponding vacancies.

The use of reconstituted and frozen left-over botulinum toxin A, for treatment of patients with axillary hyperhidrosis seems to be common practice in healthcare. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of frozen and thawed versus fresh reconstituted abobotulinum toxin (Dysport®) and onabotulinum toxin (Botox®) in the treatment of axillary hyperhidrosis. A retrospective study was conducted analysing efficacy and data from pre- and 24 weeks post-treatment questionnaires together with medical records of individuals with moderate to severe axillary hyperhidrosis. The patients had received fresh prepared botulinum toxin A in their right axilla while frozen and thawed botulinum toxin A had been administered in their left axilla. Treatment was conducted at our Hyperhidrosis Clinic, Umeå University Hospital, Sweden 2019-2021. Pre- and post-treatment questionnaires from 106 patients were analysed. The patients were 18 to 55 years old, with a mean age of 30.7 ± 9.9 years. No significant differences in patient-reported variables, Hyperhidrosis Disease Severity Scale and VAS 10-point scale, were found between the different preparations (frozen compared to fresh) for abobotulinum toxin and onabotulinum toxin, before treatment and at 6 months follow-up. Multivariable regression analysis resulted in no significant difference regarding side-effects between the preparations or brands of botulinum toxin. The findings of this study support our clinical experience that both abobotulinum toxin and onabotulinum toxin, reconstituted, frozen and thawed, seem to be as effective and safe as fresh prepared botulinum toxin when treating axillary hyperhidrosis. Our findings indicate that left-over preparations of abo- and onabotulinum toxins, stored and frozen for up to 6 months, is a cost-and time-effective way of handling botulinum toxin for treatment of axillary hyperhidrosis.

Adequate treatment of wastewater to remove micropollutants constitutes a major concern globally. Despite this, large volumes of untreated wastewater are released into the environment, mainly due to the cost involved. Biochars have been suggested to have the potential to remove pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) from wastewater, but, adsorption potential needs to be investigated further. Production of biochars should also preferably be sustainable and based on low-cost materials. This study investigated the ability of nine biochars produced in three cookstoves and from three feedstocks. All biochars were characterized and then applied in adsorption experiments, based on authentic hospital effluent. Our analytical method included 32 pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and 28 of these were detected and quantified in hospital wastewater effluent samples. Some PPCP were present in relatively high concentrations (more than 24 µg/L). Adsorption experiments showed that the biochars used in the investigation had average removal rates (RR) ranging from 14.2% to 65.5%. Removal rates also varied between and within cookstoves and feedstock. Although cookstove biochars with a low surface area in this study generally showed lower removal rates, results from surface characterization were not detailed enough to correlate the physicochemical properties of the pollutants with the adsorption. Further characterizations are therefore needed to point out the most important parameters involved in PPCP adsorption on cookstove biochars.